Monday, August 7, 2017

ICE Carries Out Second-Largest Deportation Sweep of the Year

In four days at the end of July, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) detained 650 immigrants in the agency’s largest series of raids since it made
680 arrests in February. Focused on the bizarre reality show in the White
House, US media generally gave the latest sweep little coverage.

The ostensible purpose of the raids was bad enough: it
was a continuation of the Obama administration’s sweeps last year targeting
asylum seekers who had fled violence in Central America as minors or in family
groups. But the great majority of the people actually detained weren’t in the
targeted group; it appears that some 70 percent may just have been immigrants
ICE agents encountered during the sweep. As usual, the government tried to bill
the raids as an effort to rid the country of “criminal aliens,” but most of the
people detained didn’t have criminal records. In typically misleading language,
ICE justified its arrest of 38 minors by claiming that they “were at least 16
and had criminal histories and/or suspected gang ties” (emphasis added).
(An ICE
memo indicates that tattoos and hanging out in areas with gangs were enough
to make a teen a suspected gang member.)

As Vox’s Dara Lind points out, this was the last
major ICE operation before Gen. John Kelly left Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) to become President Trump’s chief of staff. Commentators have been
describing Kelly as a reasonable man who might bring the White House under
control. Actually, what he did at DHS was the opposite of bringing people under control. He “unshackled” ICE agents who during the Obama
administration had been pressured to limit detentions to groups like immigrants
with criminal records. Now ICE agents seem to be free to pad out their arrest
records by detaining any undocumented immigrants they happen to run into. It
makes their jobs a lot easier.—TPOI editor

ICE announces results of Operation Border Guardian/Border
Resolve

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Press Release

August 1, 2017

WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) deportation officers apprehended 650
individuals during a four-day operation last week, Operation Border
Guardian/Border Resolve, which targeted individuals who entered the country as
unaccompanied alien children (UACs) and family units.

This operation was the second iteration of Operation Border
Guardian/Border Resolve which first took place in January and February 2016 in
response to the significant spike in families and UACs from Central America
attempting to illegally cross the southern border.[...]

US deportation raids under Trump lead to huge rise in
arrests of immigrants without criminal records

The rise comes even though immigration agencies in the US
have a stated priority to target 'criminal aliens'

By Clark Mindock, The Independent

August 2, 2017

US immigration officers have arrested 650 people in communities
across the US in the latest deportation sweep, but the vast majority of those
picked up by law enforcement don’t have a criminal record — an apparent break
from the organization’s stated priority to focus on “criminal aliens”.

In a crackdown that came close in size to a large-scale
sweep earlier this year, Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents
arrested 650 people over a four-day span last month, including 38 minors. Of
that group, though, 520 had no criminal record, compared to just 170 people who
had no criminal records and were arrested in the earlier crackdowns.[…]

What John Kelly's final ICE raid tells us about Trump's new
chief of staff

Seventy percent of immigrants ICE arrested weren’t the
people ICE was supposedly targeting.

By Dara Lind, Vox

August 2, 2017

Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched a nationwide
sweep — ostensibly designed to catch Central Americans who’d come to the US as
family units — in late July. But according to the press release they sent out
Tuesday, 70 percent of the immigrants they captured were merely collateral
damage.

The statement said that of the 650 immigrants nationwide,
fewer than 200 of those people were actually targeted in the operation: 73
members of family units, and 120 (former) unaccompanied children. The other 457
people — nearly three-quarters of those caught up in the sweeps — were simply
“also apprehended” and arrested.

This is a stunning admission from the Trump administration.
Even in the most generous accounting, that means more than half of the
immigrants picked up in last week’s ICE raids hadn’t been targeted and didn’t
have criminal records.[…]

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About The Politics of Immigration

The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers is a book that goes beyond soundbites to tackle concerns about immigration in straightforward language and an accessible question-and-answer format. For immigrants and supporters, the book is a useful tool to confront stereotypes and disinformation. For those who are undecided about immigration, it lays out the facts and clear reasoning they need to develop an informed opinion. Ideal for classroom use, the updated and expanded 2017 edition provides a succinct overview of U.S. immigration history, policy, and practice, with detailed notes guiding readers toward further exploration.
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